Jack for supporting clapboards



.(No Mdd'el.)

WITNESSES:

, E. W. BROWN. JACK FOR SUPPORTING OLAPBOARDS.

Patented Mar. 25, 1890.

VM W M UNITED STATES PATENT OFFIC EDWIN w. BROWN, 0F VINING KANSAS JACK FOR SUPPORTING CLAPBOARDS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 424,173, dated March 25, 1890.

Application filed June 22, 1889. Serial No. 315,169. (No model.)

To all whont it may concern:

Be it known that I, EDWIN XV. BROWN, of Vining, in the county of Clay and State of Kansas have invented a new and useful In1- provement in Jacks for Supporting Clapboards, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description.

The object of my intention is to provide a simple, cheap, and convenient implement, which in use will support a clapboard ready for nailing to the side of a house, thus enabling one man to rapidly secure clapboards in place.

\Vith this object in view my invention consists in certain features of construction and combinations of parts, which will be hereinafter described, and indicated in the claim.

Reference is to be had to the accompanying drawings, forming a part of this specification, in which similar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts in all the views.

Figure 1 represents the device applied to the side of a house as a support for a clapboard previous to nailing said board in place. Fig. 2 is a detached view in perspective of the jack. or clapboard-support, and Fig. 3 is a vertical section of a portion of the body of the jack and a movable piece held so as to be vertically adjustable upon the main port-ion of block.

The implement, technically termed a jack, consists, essentially, of a strip A, made of hard wood or other suitable material of proper length, and of a carrier-block A. The strip A is rectangular in cross-section, has parallel sides, and upon its front face near the upper end is offset to produce the shoulder d, the end of the strip being rounded at c. The short carrier-block A is secured to the lower end of strip A to have longitudinal adjustment by means of the set-screw b, which is passed through the slot 11 in strip A and screwed into the carrier-block A,-so as to hold 'or sprags f are inserted.

or other similar elastic material and projected above the end 6 of the strip A a suitable length. A small perforationz' is made near the upper end of the plate B to permit the insertion of a nail.

WVhen the device is used to hold in place clapboards of considerable length, two of the jacks are used.

In putting the siding or clapboard jacks into use for the support of the boards previous to their being nailed there is a starting-board O nailed to the rough inside sheathing-boards usually applied to the vertical studding before the clapboards are pntin place. If there is no sheathing stuff used, then the clapboards are attached directly to the studs E. After the lower clapboard is nailed so that its edges will be about horizontal the jack-shoulder b is hooked below the lower edge of the fixed clapboard O. The thin plate B is now placed in contact with an opposite stud and a nail h inserted and driven far enough in to hold the jack secured in place with the sprags c and sprags f embedded in the clapboards by slight taps of a hammer or hatchet first on the lower end of the carrier-block A and then 011 the outer face of the strip A, so as to retain the lower portion of the jack from displacement. The two jacks are similarly fixed in place, as just stated, and at proper distances from the ends of the clapboard to engage studs, as before mentioned. The jacks are now in position to receive and support a long clapboard at each end. To effect this, the edge of the board is inserted in the spaces m, formed between the metal plates B of the jacks and the thin upper ends of the strips A, which spaces should be so proportioned as to admit the clapboard readily. When fully inserted in the spaces, the lower edge of the clapboard will rest upon the shoulders cl of the strips A, which shoulders retain the board with its edges parallel to the secured lower board and properly overlapping the same. Nails are now inserted in the board that is in contact with the jaclcshoulders d, enough being driven into the board and studs E. The jacks may now be removed by withdrawing the pins or nails h, and the operation repeated. Afterward there should be nails driven into the clapboards to hold them to the studs on which the jacks were tacked temporarily, or such nailing may be done immediately after each board has been secured and the jacks removed.

WVhen the jacks are shifted to receive a second or any successive board,,thespragpoints fshouldbe embedded in the fixed board they are adjacent to, and thus assist in holding the jack vertical.

Varying Widths of clapboards are accommodated by changing the position of the carrier-block A, which will raise or lower the shoulder 19, on which the clapboard rests prior to being nailed.

When the siding of clapboards has been completed, there still remains space enough below the roof that is uncovered to permit the Withdrawal of the nails h, which hold the plates B temporarily in place. As the cornice-box and skirt-board, usually applied as a finish, are secured above the highest clapboard, the depending skirt or facing board is made to overlap the top edge of the last clapboard and form a close joint there- With.

It is evident that With the device herein described the attachment of clapboards may be rapidly done by one man. In case short clapboards are to be placed and secured,th1s may be done by using a single jack to support thev boards, the operation being similar to that employed for attaching long boards.

Having thus described my invention, What I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

In a clapboard-supporting jack, the combination, with a block having an adjustable shoulder that has sprags projected from its face, and an upper shoulder on which a suspended clapboard rests, of a thin metallic plate that is perforated at its upper end to receive a nail, substantially as set forth.

, EDWIN NV. BROWN.

WVitnesses:

N. B. NEEDHAM, E. F. WooDRUFF. 

